SoFi Blog

Data insights provided by the Analytics Team at SoFi

Today’s post is all about how men and women* compare in our student loan refinancing data set. What we found? Both men and women have high student debt loads. (Not a revelation.) Men also get paid more than women on average. (Also not a revelation.)

But here’s what’s interesting: Despite the fact that women have as much student debt and make less money than men, women in the SoFi data set pay their debt off more quickly than men—by nearly 10% (9.3% exactly).

Anyone who pursues the medical field knows that the path to becoming a doctor is laden with student debt. In fact, 76% of 2016 medical school graduates have student loans, with a median student debt load of $190,000 at graduation. And future doctors aren’t just sitting on a pile of debt throughout medical school; even upon starting residency, they’re still accruing interest on that debt while only earning, typically, about $60,000 a year.

For borrowers who are eligible, the decision to refinance student loans is typically a no-brainer. Not only does refinancing allow you to choose between lower monthly payments and a shorter payment term, but it also lets you consolidate your monthly bill and – most importantly – save a significant amount of money over the life of the loan.

But even if you’re excited about the idea of sticking it to your student loans, you may be concerned about how much work will be involved in the refinancing process. Which is understandable, given that most important financial transactions involve a mountain of paperwork and multiple calls to an unhelpful customer service center.

As an HR professional, you’re likely aware that many of your millennial and Gen X employees struggle with student loan debt. The average 2016 graduate has student loan debt of $37,172. Nationally, that debt is now over $1.4 trillion, which is more than the total credit card debt of all Americans.

Last summer, we surveyed 1,000 working professionals for The Impact of Student Loan Benefits, SoFi’s most recent white paper outlining the effect of student loan debt on employee recruitment, engagement, and retention. And what we found was telling: Employees want help alleviating the financial pressure of their student loan debt balances. In fact, just over 60% of respondents said that student debt is one of the top two most stressful financial burdens in their lives.

Luckily, student loan refinancing exists, and many millennial and Gen X employees are taking advantage of it. But what is it, and how does it help?